Engaged
by lifethatyouhate
Summary: If he didn’t want me there, I don’t want him here, only a couple hours later. I’m not making a mistake- I’m happy. Really. Oneshot from Angela’s point of view.


_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harvest Moon or any of the characters on it.

_Note_: I usually use Akari as the name of the main character, but I don't know, I sort of like Angela too. xD So the main character is Angela.

When Luke and I got engaged, it was the happiest day of my life. Don't get me wrong there- I love Luke. I love him a lot, and every time I see him I feel like smiling. Everything he says seems so perfect, even if love comes out 'lurve' or he has to scream it.

But when Chase came? I didn't expect to rethink all of my feelings for Luke. I didn't expect to put off proposing to him- even though I had been planning it for a whole season- for two weeks. When I walked in to Maya proposing to him and I heard him mutter, "I didn't say no, idiot," I didn't think I would feel so heart broken. I didn't expect to cry.

When their wedding was announced for two weeks, I proposed to Luke. "My dad's leaving in two weeks to visit other family," he told me when I explained that I wanted to put it off. "So we'll have it that day so he can be there- you know, a couple hours after Chase and Maya's wedding! You and Maya are best friends, it'll be so cool!"

Luke is naïve, even if I love him. He took my strangled 'mhm' as a good thing, and we rushed straight to the tailor shop. Maya was getting her dress fitted too, but complained that Chase didn't want to come. "You're so lucky you have Luke," she whispered as Candace stuck needles in her dress and Luna stuck needles in me. "Chase is great, but I always liked Luke, you know? But you two are perfect, and…Chase and I are good."

I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but then Luke got up and stood next to me, asking Luna if Shelly could do my dress instead. He was my best friend more than he was ever my lover- he sensed the pain I was in with poor Luna, and switched her out. He took my hand, saying, "I wish I could just hurry time up." How can you not love someone who says something like that?

I got an invitation to Chase's wedding two days later, but I knew it was from Maya. She had probably sent one out to everyone in the entire town. That's just the way Maya was- she was my best friend, but she didn't want the tiny wedding I wanted with Luke. She wanted millions of people, but if the town only had one hundred, she would settle for that- or send invitations out to everyone in the nearby cities. She probably knew all of them, too.

I didn't want to go if he didn't want me to go. Chase was as much my best friend as Maya and Luke, but had we talked since I had confessed to him that I wanted to propose to Luke? He said, "Have a wonderful damn life," afterwards, and I told him to go to hell. If he couldn't be happy for Luke and I, then why would I be happy for Maya and him?

I went to Sundae Inn to give Maya a chance to beg me to come, but she just complained. "Chase is so picky with decorations. How's Luke?" There was something about the way she said his name that made me feel so uncomfortable- Luke's, not Chase's. She talked about Chase like she would talk about Selena, her best friend before she found out about the 'boy she liked' who she never told me about. "Selena is so picky with food," she had complained.

"He's great. Anything I want, he wants. You know, under that band aid on his nose he's so pale I told him to just wear it to the wedding? But I'm not picky about that. He's wearing his bandana," I shrugged.

Maya smiled. "I wish Chase had something quirky like that," she said wistfully, slouching over the counter. I wondered if she even felt the tiniest bit afraid that Chase would pop up behind her or something and hear her saying that.

"He does, Maya," I laughed at her, pushing her on the forehead gently, like in those commercials. "He wears those three barrettes to keep his hair out of his face, remember?"

Maya frowned. "Those…barrettes? I forgot about those…he wears those on the…left side, right?" "No, the right." "Oh. Well, he _definitely_ can't wear those to _our_ wedding," she giggled, and when Chase himself had come out of the kitchen a few moments later I had excused myself and left.

Several days later and the four of us were at the church with an exuberant Mayor, a grumpy Gill, a scantily clad Selena- why was even there?- and our family. Well, Maya and Luke's family. Chase and I? He was an orphan, and my family was a thousand miles away.

"You know," Selena told me as she helped me line the pews perfectly with flowers. "I used to like Luke." Selena and I had become friends over the past few seasons. Oddly enough, she had gone from hating me to being one of my good friends. We spent a lot of time together. This crush? A blow.

"I never acted on it because I knew he liked you," she smiled at me, ruffling my already messy hair. "It's a good thing I didn't try to. I probably wouldn't have messed things up between the two of you, but I would've messed up _our _friendship. I told Maya and I definitely messed ours up."

I frowned, and she took it the wrong way. "Really, Angela, I don't care about Luke anymore. It was a bit of an infatuation, but I really grew out of it. Actually, I didn't want to tell you until it was more definite, but I visited the city the other day and I met-,"

"It's not that Selena, and I can't wait to hear about this guy. It's just…Maya? Why would she care about you and Luke, especially if…you know, you thought me and him," I shrugged. I honestly had no idea exactly what to say about it.

"Oh. You didn't know?" Selena looked so shocked it made me nervous. Her expression never changed from the confident, fierce smoky eyes. Her eyes looked nervous then- like she was afraid to tell me what she knew. "Maya liked Luke a lot. When I told her, you should've seen how angry she got. Said she was 'waiting for the perfect moment.'"

I didn't say anything, just got up and walked over to Maya, who was in a quiet argument with Chase. I heard Selena's hushed whispers chasing me, "Come back! Listen to me, Angela! She loves Chase now, and you love Luke!"

"Oh…Angela," Maya said, surprised to see me. I glanced over at Chase, and he looked over at me for a moment.

He had said that he wasn't truly going to reject Maya. He wanted to accept her proposal. So…he loved her. How could I come here and ruin this for Chase, even if I couldn't believe that Maya had never told me all of this?

"Can you help Selena and I set the flowers up on the pew? Maybe Chase could help Luke outside, he's hammering up the ribbons. We all know how accident prone he is," I joked, giving off an obviously fake laugh. Maya didn't notice, but Chase's eyes lingered on my face for a moment before he left.

He caught me on the way out, since I stayed behind later than everyone else, sitting in the front pew. _This is perfect_, I remember telling myself. _Luke and I are perfect. Chase and Maya are perfect. Who cares about the past? I have a future with Chase! I mean Luke! I have a future with Luke!_

"Chase!" I screamed, and he laughed at me in that jerk way, but I just rolled my eyes, pushing past him, but he blocked my way, arms outstretched to catch me.

"Come on, Angela. I know you had something you wanted to talk to Maya about today. If you don't tell me now it'll be too late forever. Wedding bells and everything. Is this what you want?" he asked, moving out of the way when he finished, leaving the path away from him open.

"I don't know what I want!" I shouted, running past him and straight home, where everything made sense. When I was home, with everything familiar, life made sense. I would talk to Maya. It could change everything. When I woke up, I would have that protective feeling to last over me.

When I woke up, Luke's things were in my house. "I didn't want to wake you up," he said when I opened my eyes to his blue hair tickling my face. "But I cut my hand moving in the bigger bed. Do you have a band aid?"

I never talked to Maya.

Chase and Maya's wedding was two hours before ours. Luke said he wasn't invited and asked if I was. "No," I lied on our wedding day- their wedding day. "But I have to get ready. You go hang out with Bo- your last few bachelor hours," I joked.

Luke rolled his eyes at me. "Like I haven't been asking time to hurry up for two weeks." Yeah, I know. You never stopped talking about it. I wished that Luke and I had that deeper connection. But what more could I ask for? I was marrying my best guy friend. I was happy.

I stood in the back of the cemetery, near Chase's parents' graves. I never asked if they had lived here, but it was obvious they had- Chuck and May. May, Maya. It was perfect.

They came out, and Chase kissed Maya on the cheek. I wish I could say he looked depressed, he looked at me and met my eyes, we had a connection, I had solved my problems- but he didn't notice me. He was smiling. Jake, Colleen, Kathy, Yolanda and Mayor Hamilton were all there, clapping and wishing them good luck. She didn't look very happy- and there was no surprise about that. I thought she had wanted the whole town, and she only had five people- poor Maya.

I ran to the Tailor Shop ahead of them, and this time I didn't look back. I sure they saw me, flying away, hay in my hair, late for my appointment to get ready- especially since my wedding was in a half hour- but this time it was me who didn't show that I looked depressed, didn't meet his eyes, didn't have a connection, didn't solve his problems. Sorry Chase, I had bigger problems on hand.

"You're late!" Luna screamed. We ended up not doing my hair, just tugging the dress over my shoulders, washing my dirt stained face, and squeezing my dirty feet into tiny, strappy heels.

When I showed up at the hall, I was just in time for my wedding march. When I walked in, Luke breathed a sigh of relief and then smiled at me like I was the only person in the world. Nervously, I smiled back and took a step, nearly tripping. Dale, Bo, Owen, and Toby were there. Why? I had no idea about the latter two.

"I love you," Luke whispered before he said his vows- ones he had written himself. He loved me. He didn't lurve me, he didn't LOVE ME- he just loved me. In that moment, I knew I loved him. I might not love _only_ him, but I love him.

His vows were original, and beautiful, and romantic. I did not write my own. I said what they all say, and then I do.

He kissed me, and I knew it was his first kiss, and a blush touched his cheeks. I put a smile on and stared at the decorated Harvest Goddess smiling down at me. The Harvest Sprites were around her ornate glass design ironically enough, cheering and beaming down at me. I smiled up at them, glad they were there, and turned to walk outside, though with my arm in Luke's it was more like be dragged outside.

Chase was there when we got out, with Maya nowhere to be found. At his house already? That was it? No honeymoon, no special moments? Chase was here at my wedding, and I hid in the graveyard for his.

After the clapping I walked up to him while Luke went to Bo, who put him in a headlock immediately. "Crashing a wedding only an hour after your own. Rebel, rebel," I joked.

"Well, since someone didn't invite me to their wedding," he joked back, giving me a gentle push. "Maya didn't want to invite you, but I did. But…I know the graveyard is an important place to be." I could tell he was hurt. "On my own wedding day of course I'm going to look out to where my parents are buried, Angela."

"I know. I thought…I thought Maya invited me, not you. And I'm not exactly happy with Maya right now," I turned my face to the side, sure it was beet red at this point.

"Why not?" he asked innocently enough. He had no idea what was going on in my life, in my mind. He didn't know all the rethinking, all the confusion, all the second guessing, procrastination, anger, all of the things I could've, should've, would've done.

"I can't tell you. I can't tell anyone," I looked him in the eyes, daring him to say anything back.

"Well, sorry for crashing the happy day," he said sarcastically, and then Luke was there, his arm around my waist, his hair tickling my face. My best friend there to my defense against the one person I wanted to admit everything to. I wanted to tell Chase that he was the reason I had put off proposing to Luke, and that if I told him earlier today I wouldn't have married Luke. He wouldn't have married Maya.

We would've married each other.

"Hey, Chase. I didn't know you were coming," Luke gave a strained smile. He thought he was coming to the rescue, but there he was- destroying the second chance I had.

"Nobody did, eh? I'll see you too around. I told Maya to just wait at my house," he shrugged.

"You guys just got married," Luke laughed, "and you left her alone to come to our wedding? Thanks, man."

Chase sneered at him, and it was the angriest look in his eyes that I had ever seen as he said, "I didn't come to see you two off, Luke. I came to see Angela and see if she backed out or not," and then he strode off with an obviously frustrated strut. He had cracked, right there, in front of our eyes.

"What a jerk," Luke rolled his eyes, and I snapped my gaze onto him, fully prepared to stand up for Chase. But why would I destroy what I had with Luke?

"I know. Let's go…I'm tired," I smiled at Luke, and he nodded, taking my hand as we walked away. The sounds of clapping that filled my ears like thunder did not sound happy at all as I walked off into the first day of the rest of my life.

Author's Note: I came up with this idea when Chase and Maya's invitation was in my mail. I had picked Luke, but I felt a little sad, since I liked Chase's character, and I thought it all up! The Owen and Toby being at Angela's wedding came from when they showed up at mine haha. I was like, "What?" hahaha. Sorry for the depressing fic, but it seems like all of mine are always happy ending perfect la di da. I wanted some angst. xD I'll get a happier one up soon! :]] Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
